FROM MY SUBSTACK - Tibetan Monks bicycled from Chicago to address the United Nations in New York. They made a rest stop at my friends, the Collins family, in Coatesville, PA.

 

Tibetan Monks bicycled from Chicago to the United Nations in New York. They made a rest stop at my friends, the Collins family, in Coatesville, PA.

Four Tibetan Monks and a Tibetan American man traveled by bicycle from Chicago to New York City to address the United Nations concerning the Dalai Lama and Bhutan.

James Pitcherella

Eric Collins had been following the Tibetan Monks and their concern about the Dalai Lama. 

Sorry, I can’t remember names. If anyone has more information, repost with your information.

Above is the American citizen born in Tibet who addressed the United Nations, speaking with Eric Collins. Again, I can’t remember his name. I do remember he was killed in a bicycle accident a few years later. 

Eric called me and told me how to contact the Monks. I used a Blackberry to track their location, but I don’t remember the app I used. They arrived on a Friday evening. I think it was in June of maybe 2006.

This is the truck that was their support vehicle. 

I notified a Daily Local News photographer, who found them in the West End of Coatesville.

I emailed Jean Krack, then the city manager of the City of Coatesville. It was raining, and the only dry place I could think of was the lobby of Coatesville City Hall. The 4 wet Monks and several wet support people crammed into the lobby of Coatesville City Hall. Jean came out and said, “Guess I should have opened your emails.”

They usually stay at a church. Eric and me called but couldn’t find a church hall available on short notice. 

Eric said they can stay at our house.

The monks needed ginger for tea. I used frozen ginger at the time. I’ve since learned there’s no reason to freeze it. 

I use fresh ginger every day. I have vertigo from Meniere’s disease, and ginger helps with vertigo. 

I brought my ginger to Eric’s home. Eric lived in a Craftsman-style home on Walnut Street in Coatesville. It has an open floor plan. 

At least 14 pairs of shoes were lined up in the foyer of the Collins’ home. 

The monks discussed the frozen ginger and quickly decided to cut it into small chunks and boil them.

Something similar is happening now:

“Nearly two dozen Buddhists Monks and their loyal dog Aloka are on a 120-day, 2,300-mile “Walk for Peace”. They awoke to the coldest day of the walk at 21° this morning. But the cold is not stopping them, they are heading eastward out of Meridian, MS this morning on U.S. Highway 80. They are expected to cross into Alabama later today and walk across Sumter, Marengo, Greene and Perry counties in West Alabama as they travel to the nation’s capital.

The venerable monks have made several stops on their trek between Fort Worth, TX and Washington D.C. to address crowds and are expected to do so in Alabama as well. Their mission is to promote peace, unity and kindness. They left Oct. 26 from their Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth with a completion date of sometime in February in D.C.

The monks say their mission is to support a suffering society and promote healing worldwide. “We walk not in protest, but to remind Americans that peace is not a destination. It is a practice. And that peace resides within each of us,” Bhikkhu Pannakara, spiritual leader of the Walk for Peace, wrote on the group’s Facebook page.

“The walk is a reminder that unity and kindness begin within each of us and can radiate outward to communities, families and society as a whole,” he said.”

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TUSCALOOSA THREAD

Monks March Across West Alabama For Healing And Community

Don Hartley Published: December 15, 2025